


Piano Promises

by blindljp



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, don't hate me im only five, i promise you'll like it though, im so sorry this is sad, theres no smut in this also but it will warm your heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 00:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3789133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blindljp/pseuds/blindljp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry loses Louis and promises to learn a piano piece to play for everyone</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piano Promises

He was always sitting in front of the piano. His thin, nimble fingers hitting beautifully on the black and white keys, a soft but loud sound coming from it. Harry didn’t know why Louis always spent hours upon hours at the piano playing the same song over and over. He always sat with him, watching how frustrated he got when his fingers slipped and pressed the wrong key, or when he smiled slightly when it got to the climax of the song and he just seemed so focused, so in love with the tune, but Harry didn’t know what it was. Louis wouldn’t tell him.

“It’s a surprise,” Louis would say. He never had any sheet music in front of him, like he was trying to go without it. “For a special occasion.”

“Why won’t you tell me?” The twenty year old would whine. Half of the time it seemed like he was seven instead of twenty.

“I told you.” Louis says. He stands up from the piano and carefully covers the keys with the lid, walking to the kitchen. “You’ll find out when it’s finished.”

Harry doesn’t know what Louis’ talking about. It already sounded finished, it sounded beautiful. He didn’t understand why Louis wouldn’t just tell him. “It sounds finished already. Give me a hint.”

Louis sighs and pulls out a carton of milk. “You’ll cry. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Well now you’re making me have to ask more questions,” Harry says. He watches as Louis stands on the tips of his toes to get a cup from the cupboard. He crosses his arms over his chest and leans his hip against the granite of the counter. “Will it be good crying or bad crying?”

“It better be good crying or else I will be bad crying,” Louis laughs and whispers a small yes as he reaches the cup. He opens the carton and pours himself a glass. “It’ll happen soon. I know it.”

-

Louis said he would be only a half hour at the store. It wasn’t far from their house and he said he was only going to get milk and bread. Harry assumes he grabbed a cart and filled it up with random junk they’ll probably never end up eating.

Harry wasn’t worried about where Louis was, he trusted his boyfriend to death. (He could’ve called, though.) 

One hour soon turned to two, though. And two slowly turned to three. Still no Louis. Harry was starting to find it odd, usually by this time of day Louis was sat in front of the piano in a pair of sweats and a stained t-shirt. He soon finds himself constantly calling Louis’ cell phone and pacing back and forth in the living room.

He jumps when he hears his phone go off. “Hello? Louis?” He says into the speaker.

“No, it’s Liam,” Harry’s best friend says. His voice was rough, it sounded like he was crying. “Harry, did you hear?”

“Hear about what? Why are you crying?” He was confused.

“Turn on the t.v. Channel 5.” Is all Liam says.

Harry does as he’s told, and in two seconds his heart felt like it was being torn out of his chest. The pain he felt then was indescribable, he felt like he was going to pass out. The room was pin silent, he didn’t hear the sound of his phone crashing against the floor; he didn’t hear the sound of Liam shouting for him through the phone, he didn’t hear the announcer on t.v talk about Louis’ crash. He didn’t hear the sound of him screaming Louis’ name. Everything was falling on deaf ears.

Harry shakes his head as he falls onto his knees, ignoring the shooting pain from landing on them. He’s sure he’s screaming, but he can’t hear it. He can’t hear his shouts for Louis to come home, that it wasn’t real; it was just some sick joke. But it wasn’t.

He’s not sure how long he was on the floor screaming and crying for, all he knew was he was soon being held by Liam and Zayn, them whispering that Louis wasn’t dead, but just in a coma. It was just as bad.

“Take me there,” Harry’s broken voice rings through the silent room. His voice is hoarse from crying and screaming. “Please. I need to see him.”

“Harry, maybe it’s not a good time-“ Liam starts, but Harry cuts him off.

“No! I need to see him.” He whispers, sobbing. “Please.”

-

Hospitals were the worst. They smelt too clean and too many people died in them.

Louis was one of them.

On January 31st, 2015, at 11:30pm, Louis Tomlinson had died while in a coma. He was surrounded by three of his best friends and in the arms of the love of his life. He never woke up. Harry never got to say goodbye.

He was angry. He was so angry. Angry at himself. Angry at Louis for choosing the piano over him. He was always at that stupid piano, it wasn’t fair. He was only twenty-three; it wasn’t his time to go yet.

Harry sits at the piano where Louis used to sit. He trails his fingers over the keys. Tears are falling down his face and he’s letting out choked sobs. He finds himself curling his fingers into a fist and smashing it onto the keys. He lets out screams as he has his breakdown, hitting the keys with force. Nothing breaks. He needed something else.

He spots Louis’ sheet music. They’re on top of the piano, all scattered around. The music notes stood out to Harry, he knew they were the songs he and Louis had written together. But they all didn’t matter anymore. Louis was gone, and so will these songs. He screams as he rips up the ten sheets of music, the white and black paper falling to the floor slowly. Harry tears up every last piece of sheet music that had anything to do with Louis. Everyone had different ways of dealing with pain. This was his. 

Harry stands and sobs as he slips on a few pieces and falls to the floor. He doesn’t get up. He just stays lying on the floor, sobs wracking his body. It wasn’t fair. Louis had chosen the piano over him. They didn’t get to spend time together because of the damn piano. 

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at the time on his phone. 2:30am, February 1st, 2015. Happy fucking birthday to him.

Harry sniffs as he picks himself off the floor a while later, dragging his feet along the wooden panels to his and Louis’- his room. Only his room now. Louis was gone. He shakes his head and pushes the door open, lights coming on when the doorknob hits the wall. He takes in sight of the bed. The bed is unmade, sheets ruffled from where his and Louis’ bodies were lying just the day before. Just a day ago Louis was still here, still his. 

Harry walks over to Louis’ side of the bed and picks up his jumper Louis wore all of the time. It smelt so much like Louis, and Harry finds himself pressing his face into the fabric. He puts it back down onto the bed and runs his fingers over his pillow, knowing it also smelt like him.

He furrows his eyebrows when he hears crinkling paper. He picks up the pillow and sees another music sheet. He feels his eyes watering as he reads over the words and sees the ring attached to it. He sobs when he sees ‘To play at our wedding’ in Louis’ handwriting. This is the piece Louis was working on all these months, countless hours at the piano, humming the tune all of the time. He was planning on learning this before proposing to Harry. And now he will never be able to.

He puts the ring onto his ring finger on his left hand. “I do,” he whispers. “I’ll learn this for you, Louis.”

And that’s what he does. Harry devotes his time into learning the beautiful piece for Louis. He spends hours and hours at the piano, the same spot Louis sat for months, fingers pressing the keys down beautifully, getting frustrated when he couldn’t get it right, but calming down as soon as he sees the ring on his finger.

All of Louis’ family was at the funeral. Jay holding the youngest set of twins in her arms, the other girls beside her. They were crying, I mean, who wouldn’t? They all lost a family member.

Niall, Liam, and Zayn stand with their hands folded in front of them, dressed in suits. Their cheeks are stained with tears as they look at the coffin that holds Louis’ body. They’re all waiting for one person.

That one person was Harry.

Harry quickly rushes to the front of the room (he was in the bathroom crying, okay?), wiping his hands on his pants before swiping away the tears on his cheeks. “Sorry,” He mumbles quietly into the microphone. He felt uncomfortable with hundreds of eyes on him. “Um, you guys can sit now.”

He watches as everyone takes a seat, and he himself takes a seat on the familiar bench of the piano. Louis’ piano. His piano. “This wasn’t written by me,” He leans back and coughs into his hand. “Louis wrote this and he spent hours upon hours trying to memorize it on the piano. He spent months doing this, and he never got to play it for me. It was always a secret.”

He can hear sniffling coming from people sitting in front of him, and he looks up to see Jay looking at him with a loving look. He could do this. For Jay. For Louis.

“Louis was going to play this to me at our wedding. There was a ring attached to the paper and that’s the ring I’m wearing today. I love you, Louis.”

Harry breathes in deeply and shakes his hands before setting them on top of the keys. The first note sounds, and hears the whole room go silent. Harry closes his eyes as he loses himself into the piece and tears are falling down his face, some landing on the keys, some on his hands.

As the piece comes to an end, Harry thinks of all of the memories he and Louis had together. When they first met on the xFactor, being put into a band, all of the tours, songs they’ve written, moments they’ve shared. He loved Louis with all his heart, and he always will. He presses the last note to the song; the sound echoing throughout the room and Harry keeps his eyes cast downward. 

Nobody claps. They’re not supposed to, but Harry knows. Harry knows by how quiet everyone is that they enjoyed it. He knows Jay enjoyed it. He knows Lottie and the others loved it. His mom, Liam, Niall, Zayn. But most of all, Harry knows Louis enjoyed it, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I'M SO SORRY WOW I JUST SAW THIS PLOT ON TUMBLR AND HAD TO WRITE IT IM SORRY BYE


End file.
